8/25 Acadia National Park, ME

I headed out today on the shuttle and headed off to the nearby Acadia National Park.  I had visited the visitor center a couple of days ago, so this time I changed shuttles and took the one that loops around the park.  It was partly sunny over the land, but fairly foggy over the ocean, which made it hard to get photos.

My first stop was these wild gardens.  Obviously, it was not really very wild, as most of the plants had been put there, but I really appreciated the identifying signs.

The small sign near the ferns says "Cinnamon Fern."

And these are "Christmas Ferns." 

And these are "Robbins' Ragwort."

Some "Lady Fern."

And "Swamp Dewberry."

This tree is a "Bear Oak."  It's leaves are dark green and very leathery.  It almost looks like a holly.

This is a "Cardinal Flower."

And some "Bunchberry." 

And "Royal Fern."  I remember seeing this in Florida swamps.

Pretty little bunch of swamp plants.

This is "Haircap Moss."

Back of the bus, I got off at Thunder Hole. I was told it would not be "thundering" today because it is not high tide and the ocean is not very rough, but I figured it was worth a short walk across the highway. 

This piece of coast looks a lot like some places along the Washington and Oregon coasts. 

This is Thunder Hole.  It is a long crack with a cave at the end where the waves build up and crash. 

You can see the cave at the end of the passage in the photo below.  Check out this video I posted on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/8AwKDp_uM9A   

Make sure you play it all the way to the end because the last wave was the biggest. It really does "boom" when a big wave hits, but it is hard to hear over all the people talking.

I'm going to come back here later in the week when it is sunnier and when it is higher tide.